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RECREATION MAGAZINE 



The country on the Iskoot summit was 

 volcanic and of great interest. A few 

 miles from our camp was a mountain 

 composed of obsidian. Before the in- 

 troduction of firearms the natives used 



my notice. One of the sheep killed was 

 an adult ewe. As we were returning 

 next day to measure and skin the speci- 

 mens we saw a lamb lying with its head 

 up by the dead ewe. A rifle cracked 



this glass-like rock in making knives, and the head dropped. It was a male 

 and heads for their arrows and spears, and had run off with the portion of the 

 The mountains rose almost perpen- band that escaped, but on noticing its 

 dicularly from the lowlands and were mother's absence it had back-tracked 

 worn and creased into countless canons and spent the night by her side. When 

 and precipices. Once on top the moun- we approached, the lamb remained con- 

 tain swept back in a bench about four fidently by the poor dead ewe, trusting 

 miles broad to the main range of snow- in her. as in the days gone past to pro- 

 capped peaks. This bench, bounded on tect him from danger. Instinct or rea- 

 the west by a precipice and on the east son, the result was the same, 

 by rugged mountains, was the most That night we packed home in glo- 



gruesome and lonely place I have ever rious moonlight. The snowy mountains 

 seen. In centuries past the country had were heavenly in their beauty ; far 

 been covered with volcanic ash, at a above us the lonely glaciers glistened, 

 later date lava flowing from the moun- and in the valleys the rivers wandered 

 tains had settled in the ashes and like silver bands. As our moccasined 

 cooled; later the wind had carried the feet patted the cool snow and rustled 

 ashes away to a great extent, leaving through the wild flowers, I thought of 

 the lava exposed. the little lamb and his life on the wind- 



It was with a vague impression that swept hills, and the birthright of which 

 we were on some unknown planet that we had robbed him. 

 we waded ankle-deep through volcanic The black sheep is a beautiful and 



dust ; the pumice deadened every noise graceful animal. Compared with the 

 as we wound our way in 

 fog or snow through the 

 hazy masses of lava rising 

 high above our heads. This 

 wilderness of lava had been 

 the nursery of a young 

 grizzly bear, for at every 

 turn we found tracks of the 

 mother and the cub ; but we 

 never met them. 



There were a few sheep 

 in the country, and one 

 good-sized band, led by a 

 monster ram, had crossed 

 the mountains the day of 

 our arrival. Finally we 

 secured four fine specimens. The band Montana sheep, its build is light and 

 had been "using" on a big bluff that it lacks the massiveness and dignity of 

 overhung a valley, and we had passed the big-horn in both body and head; 

 their retreat several times before it was but it easily makes up for it in beauty 



TAHLTAN GRAVE, STIKINE RIVER, B. C. 



discovered. Out of this band we col- 

 lected a fine series of adults and young 

 of both sexes. 



The killing of these sheep brought 



of form. 



Stone's sheep, although" called the 

 black sheep, is not very dark in color. 

 Adult rams, at a distance, look dark 



about the most touching instance of ani- brown or black, but the general color 

 rial affection that has ever come under of the ewes, young rams and lambs is 



